Landlords turn to letting agencies
Letting Agents - 21/08/2006 12:20:00
Landlords may be forced to sign up with letting agents to comply with a new mandatory scheme to protect tenants' deposits.
The introduction of the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme (TDPS) in October is likely to see rental yields on buy-to-let properties fall and many landlords may be forced to raise rents.
Mortgages, Britain's biggest buy-to-let mortgage broker, told business website Citywire that the TDPS will have a major affect on the number of landlords who use letting agents instead of managing their own properties.
Lee Grandin, chief executive of Landlord Mortgages, told Citywire: "Some 95 per cent of novice landlords use an agent but as they get more experienced they tend to switch to managing the property themselves.
"But the introduction of the TDPS has slowed this trend and the number of landlords leaving agents is down 18 per cent on the previous year."
According to Citywire around 52 per cent of landlords turning to letting agencies said that the introduction of the new Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme was a major factor.
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